AI has brought about a time of reflection for everyone, especially those of us in tech-related jobs. I did aerospace and mechanical engineering a couple of years before I totally dove into software engineering. That was over 10 years ago. I’ve had the privilege to work in all over tech - all the way from junior dev, to mid and senior, then to tech lead to engineering manager, and eventually even associate director of engineering.

Then there have been the squiggles outside of pure software development like being a tech writer, developer advocate, machine learning engineer, data engineer, my own independent contractor, teacher, that weird time with DevOps and Security, and a number of other roles across all kinds of companies and industries. It’s been so much fun touching everything in tech I could get my hands on.

I remember having that raw obsession where I’d happily put in a 16 hour day of work just to get better, to learn more, to become more a more “holistic” developer. That time is gone now. It’s a… controversial part of my life in my eyes, but it’s great being on the other side.

The question now is: what’s next?

What is next?

I’m actually pretty sure this profession isn’t totally going away. There have been bigger and worse happenings before. But thinking about doing anything else made me realize I fell into the same thing as most people do. My job became a large part of my identity and thinking about doing something else feels wrong.

I’ve been a software engineer forever now. My wardrobe could tell the story of my career. That’s how my friends and family described me. I lived with a laptop nearby. So I had to purge all of that. It was a very long, emotional process to start letting go and accept the unknown again.

But it’s fun.

• Marketing has stuck out recently as an option. I want to step away from the details of tech, but still be close enough by to stay up to date with what’s happening.
• Medical research has also popped out.
• Logging off and taking a swing at inventing something is a dream I’ve had.
• Being an adjunct professor at the community college or an instructor at a technical school would also be awesome. I do love teaching.
• Pilot of some sort? If that happened, I’d chuckle because that’s a lot of time and money to get to that level. (but I’m kinda already on the way to it so…)

Whatever it is, I’ll give it a smarter level of intensity and intuition than I did the first time. The brute force method won’t work at this stage.

The deeper layer

What I’m really trying to figure out is the driving factors behind things. What are the things we need built on? What are resources, materials, and skills needed to make the things? What does it mean to be an industrialist instead of an entrepreneur?

I had someone far, far smarter than me ask that last question and I’ve been simmering on that for over a year. I can feel something flickering there, but I need to focus on it with some consistency.

I’m not totally planning an exit out of software right now, but it just feels like it’s time for me to try something else.